Monday, April 25, 2011

A new [erka:es] post! Isemiya’s given himself a deadline of the beginning of Golden Week. We’ll see what that brings!

According to Justin, WOMI’s also updated his own personal INCREDIBLE NOT WORK SAFE site with new information concerning the RKSF project. Nah, just kidding. It’s mostly people saying that dealing with the delay must suck with WOMI going “Yeah, it does.” That’s pretty much it.

I’ll be making a new and interesting update soon! You’ll see it shortly!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

I’d like to say that the curtain has risen, but it hasn’t. Still, who knows what has yet to unfold? Unfortunately, WOMI doesn’t.

So apparently, over the weekend, WOMI went to Isemiya’s house. This resulted in nothing, because there was no answer. According to the post, this isn’t the first time this has happened, and WOMI claims that he should’ve seen this coming. There are a lot of words in the post, but it all boils down to one thing:

The future of Rosenkreuzstilette ~Freudenstachel~, and [erka:es] for that matter, is completely unknown.

What we’ve got so far are some images, one of which hints at a new weapon, another that shows an inspired enemy from Mega Man 2’s Wood Man stage. Aside from that, you get a sliver of hope that RKSF will actually see a release.

Well, until we get some further information, you have the Grollschwert novelization and the revamped English patch to look forward to. I’ll actually be taking the scripts we have and doing some rewriting later this week. I may also try to get in touch with WOMI myself to see if we can arrange a talk. It’ll be something, I guess.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

At the rate things are going, this is entirely plausible. The latest [erka:es] update shows a timeline of what’s been going on with RKSF and what’s left to do before the game is finished. This is what’s left:

The Fortress Bosses (think Sepperin Castle and Iris Palace)

Variations of normal enemies (probably for the Fortresses)

Story Mode

Balance and debugging

Voices

So, literally, almost everything. The main levels are supposedly finished, and I assume that the rest of the RKS cast are accounted for (aside from the Dark Magi, which are probably part of the Fortress Bosses or perhaps like the Doc Robots). Beyond that, there’s no Story Mode in place, there’re barely any voices beyond what we’ve already heard in the demo, and the game hasn’t even reached the testing phase yet.

Apparently, Isemiya was supposed to have had the Fortress Bosses done by February 19th. At this point, he has pretty much gotten in touch with WOMI every Sunday to extend his own deadline for a week. It is now April, and his latest update is “I’ll have it done by the 17th!”. So now, WOMI just wants to go to his house to punch him. WOMI (along with the rest of us, I’m sure) is hoping that Isemiya still wants to even finish the game, so keep your fingers crossed!

Oh, and don’t bother e-mailing them about it. WOMI can’t seem to read any of the mail form stuff, and there’s a chance that Isemiya, for one reason or another, can’t (or won’t) either. It probably all goes to Isemiya, but because they’re not really in contact, WOMI can’t do anything about it.

Monday, April 11, 2011

As the chamber doors closed behind her, Spiritia stepped softly yet firmly through the deep snow, slowly approaching the lady in the white dress who stood silently at the distant cliff's edge, staring into a blue emptiness. The wind was strong, blowing sheets of snow almost completely horizontally. The icy woman's dress flowed somewhat violently, like the waves of a storm-ridden ocean. As Spiritia got closer and closer, the chill that ran down her spine was not from the frigid world around her. She stopped and looked upon her dear friend while she gathered words to speak and the courage to speak them.

"Fr-"

Before she could utter a full syllable, the princess of ice, her best friend Freudia, broke the silence, her back still turned.

"Tia," she spoke with a hint of happiness, "it overjoys me to see that you've changed your mind, for certainly, you've come for no other reason."

Spiritia's heart ached, but she remained steadfast in her decision.

"I'm sorry, Freu," she replied. "I can't let you do this."

Freudia bit her lip as her teary eyes stayed out of view. Her heart, too, ached with a pain that only comes from love and loss.

"Tia..." she nearly sobbed. "Surely you've not sided with those who hunt us."

"No, Freu." Spiritia shook her head. "I haven't sided with anyone. Both we and the Empire are wrong!"

Freudia's voice suddenly cracked from one of sadness to one of disbelief and frustration. She turned to face Spiritia, staring coldly into her eyes.

"How dare you place us on the same level as our persecutors!" she exclaimed. "Tia, what has become of you!?"

Spiritia, slightly taken aback by Freudia's sudden change in tone, responded in turn. "I should ask you the same, Freu! RKS would never start a war like this! You would never do something this heinous!"

Freudia began to walk towards her. Her footsteps sounded as though she walked on concrete; her feet never once sunk beneath the white. She moved atop the snow, like a god on water. Her eyes glowed a passionate blue. Her hands visibly trembled.

"You say we are the heinous ones!? Tia, do you not recall our own childhood!? We watched as Imperial soldiers destroyed our homes, our families, and for what!? Because we were born gifted!?" Freudia's voice grew angrier as she reminisced of the history she and Spiritia shared. "The Holy Empire is nothing more than a devilish hypocrisy that fears our kind. They began this holy crusade to end our existence years ago, and since the beginning, there has been no retribution! That ends today, Spiritia!"

Freudia raised her hands, manifesting gigantic sharp icicles from the air around her. "RKS shall stand above the Empire and rain upon them the justice our people wish to be served!" With a swift swing of her arms, the icicle spikes flew in Spiritia's direction, flying past her and crashing loudly into the ground behind her. This was but a taste of Freudia's righteous hate. Spiritia did not flinch.

"Freudia!" she cried out, her hand beginning to glow. "Justice cannot be served through fire! You're the one who taught me that! Are you saying that we should throw away our ideals for the sake of a stupid war!?"

Freudia turned away once more.

"The rules have changed, Tia," she said. "We have done nothing but uphold our end of the bargain since Father Rosenkreuz's sacrifice. Now, Liebea's brother is a prisoner-of-war. The Zeppelin family is in a panic. There are even rumors of Magi who've allied with the Empire! We stand here, on these grounds, victims of circumstances we did not bring upon ourselves." She turned back to Spiritia, an icicle summoned to her hand. "To hell with ideals! We must take a stand!"

"There has to be some other way, Freu!" Spiritia begged. "I'm sure of it!"

With tears forming in her frozen eyes, Freudia asked once more. "Tia, my sister..." she said. "You have been gone far too long. Please, Tia. I ask you again. Will you stand by us?" She extended her free hand. "Will you stand by me...?"

Spiritia, stricken with grief, shook her head one more time.

"No, Freu," she replied. "I won't let this go on. I'll show you myself that there's another way. I'm sorry..."

Freudia slowly lowered her hand. "You're a fool, Tia. ...I will make you understand." Suddenly, Freudia fired the icicle from her other hand directly at Spiritia. In an instant, Spiritia returned fire with a magical shot from her hand, shattering the icy spear on impact.

She looked to Freudia with horrified eyes, only to be met with an icy gaze. Two sisters, two best friends, stood on opposite sides of a battlefield, engaged in a duel neither wants to fight in a war for which neither asked. In those two shots, there were more words and more feelings than any other time that either could remember. Two women, firm in their beliefs, now stared their destinies straight on. Spiritia couldn't leave things as they were. She needed to defeat the one she loved more than anyone to prove that this war need not be fought, and Freudia was going to resist her every step, every shot, of the way.

The curtain had risen on a duel of fates. On that day, into the tundra, destiny would forever be etched.

Friday, April 1, 2011

To those of you who couldn’t figure out the meaning of the rot13 cypher from the previous entry, here it is in all its legible glory:

“Unfortunately for everyone looking forward to Karl Mode (and those who can actually read Japanese), WOMI also stated in this update that they didn't have enough time to finish up their April Fool's joke for this year, so he went ahead and posted what they had. Karl Mode is not a real thing, so you can go ahead and remove that stuff from the RKS wiki, you jerks.”

Karl Palesch, Liebea’s brother mentioned in the first game, is not a playable character in Freudenstachel and was created for the sole purpose of this year’s April Fool’s joke. However, WOMI wrote that they didn’t have the time needed to complete the joke in its entirety, so what they had was posted for our viewing pleasure. What’s funny to me is that some people immediately pounced on the opportunity to announce a mode that very openly listed as fake in the [erka:es] blog, going as far as to update the wiki, listing Kahl/Karl as a playable character. This emphasizes the danger in having some people directly involved with the flow of information concerning the RKS series, something I’ve been very adamant amount since the wiki’s creation. Entries will get updated with whatever people feel is right or wrong, regardless of accuracy, and eventually, people take notice. This is not the way things should be handled.

Therefore, I have come up with a solution. Soon, we of Schwer and Schwer Alike will no longer support the RKS Wiki; we will instead create our very own on-site encyclopedia with all of the important and accurate information readily available to all readers of this site. It will not publicly editable; all information posted will be done from within the site, and any additions or requests will have to be run through site administration before it will be posted. This “RKSclopedia” will see its creation alongside the upcoming main website, of which the details will be announced at a later time.

This is the best possible scenario I can come up with, so please be aware of it. I don’t think I can actually *delete* the current RKS wiki, nor will I try to. The only thing I can request is that when the RKSclopedia is created, it should be considered the authority and the first option for RKS information, and I would like that to be known. We’ll worry about that when we actually get there, though.

In other news, I can’t wait to see what Hugh Man has in store for that RKS sprite-based movie, I still have a Kiora doujinshi to give away, and some other things are blah blah blah I’ll post later when I actually get it all together. Until then!

Site Introduction

Where in the world are you? I'm glad you asked! Welcome to Schwer and Schwer Alike, the main English blog site for all things Rosenkreuzstilette (RKS for short). RKS is a Mega Man clone doujin game created by [erka:es] and is a much-needed piece of work in a world where Capcom won't release Mega Man Universe or Legends 3.

Formerly a duo, [erka:es] is currently a one-man show run by WOMI, the series main artist. There's a link below to their main website, if you're so inclined, and if you're interested, you can try the game's English demo or purchase it at DLSite (link below)! The possibilities are endless!